Linkbar

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

2013 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

We are excited to announce that the we will again be hosting the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge in 2013, and we hope that you are all excited at the prospect of joining in.

The challenge will run in the same way as it has over the last couple of years that we have hosted the challenge. The only thing that has changed is the names of the categories.

Here are the details:

Each month, a new post dedicated to the HF Challenge will be created. To participate, you only have to follow the rules:

everyone can participate, even those who don't have a blog (you can add your book title and thoughts in the comment section if you wish)

add the link(s) of your review(s) including your name and book title to the Mister Linky we’ll be adding to our monthly post (please, do not add your blog link, but the correct address that will guide us directly to your review)

any kind of historical fiction is accepted (HF fantasy, HF young adult,...)

During these following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels:

You can tailor the challenge to suit you in whichever way you like! For example, I know of one participant who over the last couple of years has only read historical mysteries as it suits their own reading tastes!

To join the challenge you only need to make a post about it, grab the button below if you like and leave your link in Mr Linky below or just leave a link to your blog if you are not yet ready to post about it yet. If you don't have a blog you can just leave a comment for this post saying that you are joining.

The challenge runs from 1 January to 31 December 2013.

We look forward to having you join us in reading and enjoying the best in historical fiction over the next year.

193 comments:

I would love to join in next year as I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts over the last few months and it sounds like a lovely idea. Gorgeous button, by the way - amazingly I saw this painting at an art fair just a few weeks ago! (Where can I get the html for the button?)

I would love to do it! I don't have a blog so please let me know if I need to do anything else! I can link to my Goodreads or Facebook account if you like. I am very excited as I read mostly historical fiction anyways so this should be easy peasy :)!

The button Alex made for this challenge is indeed gorgeous - and what a terrific challenge! My new Tudor-era novel, Blood Between Queens, will be released in May 2013 and I'd love to see it jump into people's TBR stacks. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines ...

I've never been much of a historical fiction reader, but this past year I read a few that I really enjoyed! I'm going to aim for five and I'll be doing this through my Christian fiction blog, hence it will all be historical Christian fiction.http://faithfilledreading.blogspot.com (I'll post about this in January.)

I'm a newbie to this sort of challenge so I'm hoping to pick it up as I go along. I read 31 HF books last year but I'm setting my sights on Medieval as my resolution is to read less HF and more classics, history and biography in 2013. Let's see how that goes.

I misinterpreted the reading levels when I first posted about this challenge but have since updated my page to reflect that I'll be aiming for the Ancient History level. This should be a piece of cake for me since I've read over 50 works of historical fiction this year.

Thanks for hosting this challenge again, Marg. Love to learn about everyone's choices and read their reviews! 2013 should be a great year for historical fiction, especially if Diana Gabaldon gets Written in My Own Heart's Blood published, don't you think? Happy reading!

I'm still working on finishing the 2012 Challenge but plan to increase my number of books this year to Medieval. It is my area of expertise in literary terms, after all. I do like the idea of using Goodreads to keep a list of the books read and reviewed.

I recently moved from a fairly established blog to my own and although the prospect of doing things alone is daunting, I'm glad I came across this reading challenge. It looks fun and I have a few books in my to be read pile.

I love historical fiction so I'm totally up for this challenge! I was just wondering if there was anyway to get higher levels? I read a lot of HF and 25 isn't really a challenge for me, and I think it would be cool to have a higher goal to reach!

I'm going with "Anonymous" only because my most commonly used only ID is with Yahoo -- and that's not an option here! My name is Mona and historical fiction is one of my favourite genres. I'll be going for the "Medieval" level.

Well, I pushed myself with the Global Reading Challenge last year and found many authors I would not otherwise have discovered. This year I'll try to push myself outside my normal reading genre (mysteries) and do some historical fiction.

This is my first time participating in a challenge here - looking forward to it. I've given the link to my Goodreads page as I'm not sure yet where I'll be posting reviews. I'll let you know. I'll aim for Renaissance Reasder level to start with.

I'm thinking of joining this challenge... I have a question, though. Can we use books from other challenges? (For example, I'm joining an E-Book challenge, so if I read a historical e-book, could I count it towards this challenge, as well?)Just want to double check! :)

I would love to try this challenge - have never done one before. Some uneducated questions - are the levels listed for books read per month, eg 20th Century Reader is 2 books per month? Will the posts give us guidance for choices of books? I post my reviews to Goodreads, but I'm not sure how I would share those with the group. Thanks for any advice, this will be fun.

I wish to join the challenge but I am new in this and I have a question.I know its a silly question but still I need to ask this.When you say Victorian novels does that mean novels written on that era or any novel that is written about that period?

Oh, how this challenge intrigues me! I've not been a historical reader, just dabbled in the genre from time to time. However, I've decided to try again. I've some historical books gathering dust on my TBR list; it's time to get out the Dustbuster! :D

I will be doing the Medieval, because I read a huge amount of historical romance every year, so 15 books over the course of 2013 should be a doozy. I've already read one book that qualifies, before even realizing this challenge existed. Great idea for a reading challenge!

Hello Marg! Interesting question for you: where is the line at which historical starts? I imagine the definition is fiction purposely set in the past, or contemporary work published so long ago it's now historical to us. Your challenge your rules! :) 1970, 1960, earlier? ~Carolyn~

Personally I don't think that soemthing was contemporary when it was written but is historical to us is historical fiction. In terms of where the line is, I would probably go with anything set more than 50 years ago, but that is kind of flexible. For example, The Help is set less than 50 years ago but it is very clearly a snapshot of a place and time that is clearly in the past now.

I'm glad to have your vision of the theme (I love to do well in competitions knowing I've honoured the rules). I can look at my books and gauge which level to post. Your 50 year estimate = publications up to 1962. I'll see that I choose the ones that respect your parameters of a clear period snapshot. That's what I meant.

Conan Doyle, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Agatha Christie wrote in 1887/1909/1920 and some of Phyllis A Whitney's later stuff has an outdated feel; even if unintended back then. Not like Susanna Kearsley, Rachel Hore making up the past. I'm gonna have fun experimenting with both paths to historical fiction, carefully adhering to your definition. :)

Hi Valerie & everyone in this group! I'm a Canadian who has never willingly read much historical fiction by its popular definition; you know how dull school books can be! I do like Susan Wittig Albert's "Cottage Tales" about following Beatrix Potter but this is pretty much new to me.

I just discovered challenges in July. I jumped on board 17 of them later and later. Two may not have added me to the link, LOL but I achieved them all. It's a novelty to join in January with everyone else. At Christmas, I won't think of reviews and reporting in to oodles of blogs! I'm on dial-up, after all! {shudder}

Hi Marg! I now have a specialized link for you to associate with member #167, please. :) I wish I can churn things out like many people but the German in me does things carefully. I write about what drew me to a reading group and how I feel about the theme... I'm sure, a treat for the hostess if she gets around to seeing it! LOL

I joined the HF reading challenge and I'm hoping to be a Ancient History Reader. I know crazy! As long as I can count the two books I've already read this month. Here's my reviews 1.http://juliemartinwallace.blogspot.com/2013/01/book-review-of-heartless-by-jaimey-grant.html2.http://juliemartinwallace.blogspot.com/2013/01/book-review-of-death-before-compline-by.html

I just linked to my fifth Historical Fiction review! I am now officially a Victorian level reader. My fifth historical novel for this year was The Last Runaway, by Tracy Chevalier, and it was absolutely excellent. Two thumbs up!

I finally linked my reviews! You might recall it was my first time reading historical fiction and I liked it better than I thought! In #167, my basic blog can be switched for the specific post: http://cmriedel.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/guilty-country-historic/

Please message my blog if there's a spot for closing posts. I do happen to have one: http://cmriedel.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/history-new-mountains/

I'm starting my own 3 themes as first time hostess! Everyone is invited and I hope the wide variety is enjoyed. My sign-ups can be viewed here. http://cmriedel.wordpress.com/riedel-reading-themes/

Past challenges

HT Recommends

Looking for some HF recommendations with a particular setting or era? Send us an email to historical.tapestry @ gmail.com and we will give you our recommendations and ask our readers for theirs as well. Guaranteed to expand your reading list!